the pan fried tofu (the first time this has actually worked like in the restaurants…)

the grilled salmon (self-explanatory…)

the steak over soba.

the best thing about this cookbook is that each recipe offers ways to serve the meal for babies just starting solid foods (around 6-10 mos. old) and for children. not alternative dishes, but ways of serving & preparing the same meal for everyone in the family. realizing that babies and kids aren’t idiots. they have taste buds too. just give them a little credit and have patience. they probably do like more than mac n’ cheese and chicken fingers.

feeding the whole family.

for example:

the thai steak salad over soba.

not something many would normally assume to be baby finger food. but lair suggests that

” some soba noodles with fresh cilantro and a few drops of dressing are perfectly fine to serve.”

it is also excellently non-legalistic. there is meat. there is sugar. there is salt. there is fat. but crafted together in a whole-foods, whole-family approach.

seriously. we have yet to try something from this cookbook that hasn’t been a success.

the book, with it’s lovely cover design by olympia, wa artist nikki mcclure, and full of recipes by seattle local cynthia lair, is also a reminder of our former home in the pacific northwest.

and a reminder of all things fresh and whole – in washington and right here in virginia.

The time that a chef’s move benefited me the most was when Lisa Joy and Doug Porter closed 23 Beverly in Staunton and she became the head chef at Joshua Wilton House in Harrisonburg. She introduced our pastured meats and poultry there, and it has been our flagship restuarant for nearly two decades.

in the past couple of years, there has been much hype about the writings of local food guru michael pollan. in his oh so popular, and oh so excellent book, omnivore’s delimna, he devotes whole chapters to who? joel salatin. he uses salatin as a case study to highlight local (vs. organic) food trials and successes. this example is ultimately a huge part of his thesis.

so. like i said. we were thinking.

does this mean that the current national obession with local food can be partly traced back to harrisonburg? back to us?

to the joshua wilton house.

to t&e meats (which, according to salatin, now stands for “true and essential”).

to our cows. and pigs. and chickens.

there are other establishments with a 20 year history of local food dedication. sure. check out alice water’s chez panisse in berkely.

but, do we often think of our very own in the same holy local food light?

that is only a glimpse of my short list. slight guilty pleasures. they all manipulate me pleasingly.

i don’t think that i would actually put the middle east on my final list (a little uber-trendy to be classic in my opinion). but i was listening to their song ‘blood’ and it made me think of all of those songs i turn to for late night drives or heavy summer rainy days like today.